Review of Ball Milling
Matthew King
2/4/04
Talk Outline
Ball Milling parameters Different Milling machines and their respective energies Overview of contamination and methods of reducing it Milling ball motion in a planetary mill and the effects on
collision energies The effect of temperature and milling ball energy on sample
evolution Overview of Mechanical Milling pre-alloyed intermetallics Overview of Mechanical Alloying of elemental powders Summary of Milling parameters Brief Conclusions
Overview of Ball Milling Parameters
Type of mill (planetary, attrition, vibratory, rod, tumbler, etc.) Speed of mill, relative speeds of pot rotation to disk revolution in a
planetary mill
Composition, size, shape and surface of pot Degree of filling pot Number, size(s), material (density, elasticity), and surface of milling balls
Weight, shape, size and composition of starting material
Macroscopic temperatures of pot, ball and powder Microscopic Temperature at collision point Milling atmosphere Milling time
Chaotic system!
Different milling machines
Fritsch planetary miller Medium-high energy
research miller (<250g) What we have!
Tumbler mill Energy depends on diameter and speed of drum Primarily used for large-scale industrial applications
SPEX miller: High energy,
research-scale ~10cm3
Attrition mill High energy
small-industry scale (<100kg)
Power of different milling machines
Contamination
Fresh atomic surfaces constantly created during mechanical milling, so contamination by O2 & N2 is a real problem: Argon commonly used as an inert environment (impurities in Argon
can be a problem though) Can be useful – mechanical milling invented as means of creating
metals with uniform dispersion of oxide for strength.
Milling with a liquid surface agent can lower particles’ surface energy, allowing smaller particle sizes to develop. However, some becomes absorbed into the sample as a contaminant.
Other source of contamination is from pot/balls: Less “foreign” material tends to be introduced if sample/milling media
are dissimilar materials. Effect of contamination tends to be more serious if sample/milling
media are dissimilar materials Using milling media that are of the same material as the sample is the
solution if contamination critical, but compensation to retain balance of alloy may be required.
Reducing cross-contamination
Milling often results in powder being welded to the pot, and diffused into the milling surfaces.
This can be minimised by: Having designated pots for a particular material Skimming the milling surface Removing chemically (not a good option if milling media/stuck-on
sample are similar materials) Milling with sand – both manufacturers recommend milling with high
purity (quartz) sand to remove stuck-on material Milling with meths/acetone
Trajectory of milling balls in a planetary mill
Aim is generally to have milling balls cascading across pot and colliding with maximum energy with the opposite wall.
In reality, there is a high slip-factor between pot and balls (80%), so observed trajectories in a Fritsch mill are:
25% reduction in energy transfer due to slipping
Trajectory of milling balls continued . . .
Slip factor means higher rotation:revolution ratio needed for cascading motion:
2 2P l m Power input approximately given by:
A higher ball elasticity should increase the efficiency with which energy is transmitted to the powder.
Too high a pot rotn:disk revn ratio leads to milling balls being pinned to side, so a balance is needed.
Pot rotation in opposite direction to revolution of disk more efficient
Other parameters affecting the ball impact
Greater Ball to Powder Ratio (BPR) generally only increases the collision frequency (decreases the time it takes for powders to evolve)
However, filling the pot above 50% reduces the milling efficiency
Having milling balls of varying sizes can have a chaotic effect on the ball trajectories, preventing tracks forming (making sure all the sample is milled uniformly), but this less of an issue with planetary ball millers
Heavier milling balls increase the impact energy of collisions
Cr on graph means BPR. R = ball size
Temperature Reached
Macroscopic Pot temperature: Maximum temperature rise of 100-200oC is generally accepted. Maximum depends on milling conditions & cooling mechanisms
Macroscopic ball temperature: Paper predicts milling balls will get
much hotter (600oC) than pot: Max temperature linked to ball size Heat transfer from balls to pot relies on
forced convection
Microscopic powder collision temperature: Only weakly linked to ball temperature Can be 100oC up to 1100oC Temperature pulses calculated to last ~10-5s
General effects of milling powders
Generally, increasing the impact energy: Increases the amount of cold welding and fracture Collisions plastically deform the atomic structure, which:
Introduces dislocations, vacancies, stacking faults, atomic disorder… Thereby increases strain, which is relieved by grain refinement (i.e.
fracture). More energetic milling reduces the grain size. The stored energy of cold work introduced into the sample has been
known to be up to 50% of enthalpy of fusion of a material
Effect of temperature: More energetic milling increases the temperature of the powder (which
can result in recovery from disorder . . .) Vacancy density and fracture decrease as temperature increase Higher macroscopic/microscopic temperatures promote recovery from
disordered state and promote diffusion
Effect of Mechanically Milling pre-alloyed Intermetallics Creates disordered nanocrystalline structure,
with amorphous halos between grains.
If the increase in the free energy (associated with grain boundaries and atomic defects) reaches a critical level, the formation of a meta-stable phase becomes possible (e.g solid solution, amorphous, or simply nanocrystalline)
Low temperatures generally favour amorphous phase, as:
Lower recovery rate More disorder (e.g.
smaller grain size) produced
Can be a maximum temperature for amorphous phase formation.
Mechanical Alloying in ductile/ductile systems
In ductile/ductile systems: Lamellar structure develops Layers get thinner and thinner Thermal diffusion occurs Alloy is formed
Mechanical Alloying in ductile/brittle systems
In ductile/brittle systems alloying: Brittle powder fragments when hit Brittle powder embedded in ductile material If brittle material soluble in ductile material, short range diffusion
of the brittle material into the ductile and an alloy can form
Mechanical Alloying in brittle/brittle systems
Both brittle powders fragment when hit
When powder size reaches “limit of comminution”, material can become more ductile, allowing conglomeration and cohesion.
Diffusion may then form “alloy” (e.g. Si/Ge)
In brittle/brittle systems, alloying may occur:
Temperature generally critical. If the temperature is below a certain limit, diffusion will be too limited to allow alloy formation
Effect of Mechanically Alloying powder mixture
Mechanical alloying often results in a (fully mixed) amorphous (or partially amorphous) phase, which can then be annealed to form the crystalline intermetallic.
However, in different milling conditions, the intermetallic may be formed directly.
Predicting which phase will predominate is difficult: There is evidence that softer (less energetic) conditions favour
amorphisation over intermetallic formation. However, the effects of temperature on this trend cannot be ignored
Contradictory evidence for effect of temperature exists
The evolution of particle size generally follows the trend opposite:
Summary of Milling parameters Mechanical Milling: Likely optimum conditions for creating
disordered (nano-crystalline then amorphous) intermetallics: Low temperature milling favours smaller average grain size (more
defects, less re-arrangement) but broader distribution. Greater ball size and BPR results in lower grain sizes, more defects
and faster grain-size reduction Greater pot width and higher ratio of pot rotation to disk revolution
(opposite directions) is more energetic (until milling balls stick to side). Filling the pot too full can inhibit milling
Mechanical Alloying: The process depends on how ductile the constituent powders are. Softer milling favours amorphous phase formation over intermetallic Contradictory evidence for the effect of temperature on phase
Contamination should be controlled by use of pure Argon, minimising milling times and by use of milling media of the same material as the sample if possible
Conclusions
The physics of the process is very complicated, and is dependant on large numbers of parameters, making comparisons between research groups difficult.
More research is needed to understand ball milling enough to allow accurate prediction of material phases prior to experiment.
However, mechanisms for mechanical milling and alloying are broadly agreed upon in the literature, allowing general effect of milling parameters to be predicted.
Mechanical Milling provides a means of producing materials that cannot be produced by other means, and so this is a very exciting research area.
References
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